Are modern cars less durable than they used to be?
Discussion
My neighbour has just disposed of his beloved 160K Mondeo TDCI Ghia, because the turbo went and the cost of replacement at £900 was just too prohibitive. In fact if you scan through AUTOTRADER, there are loads of cars with over 100K miles on them but not so many seen to make 200K. I wonder then if we reached the pinnacle of potential car durability sometime in the 1990s to early 2000s period, after proper rust proofing was perfected, but BEFORE we had high volume dual mass flywheel, turbo, particulate filtered, injector etc fitted cars.
TBH I cant see many of todays cars making it to old age, because expensive component failures will mean their 3rd or 4th owners simply have to scrap 'em, which is a shame, especially in a recession where repairing and maintaing old cars would seem to make sense. What do you lot think?
TBH I cant see many of todays cars making it to old age, because expensive component failures will mean their 3rd or 4th owners simply have to scrap 'em, which is a shame, especially in a recession where repairing and maintaing old cars would seem to make sense. What do you lot think?
Bezza1969 said:
My neighbour has just disposed of his beloved 160K Mondeo TDCI Ghia, because the turbo went and the cost of replacement at £900 was just too prohibitive.
But if the rest of the car was sound and he still liked the car then it's not the cars "fault" that he refuses to replace a part that is subject to normal wear and tear. He is unlikely to get a replacement car for £900 that's equivalent to his Mondeo that doesn't need a bunch of stuff fixing on it. Bonkers... Bezza1969 said:
TBH I cant see many of todays cars making it to old age, because expensive component failures will mean their 3rd or 4th owners simply have to scrap 'em, which is a shame, especially in a recession where repairing and maintaing old cars would seem to make sense. What do you lot think?
Or people could do what many have been doing for years: a bit of DIY spanner work with second hand parts. It's always been the case that as cars get older then replacement parts and labour from the main dealer no longer make financial sense. For pricey parts then second hand makes sense. Many's the happy hour spent scrambling around scrap yards with my father searching for a good quality thingumy widget, invariably to be found on the car atop the most precarious stack. Now it's even easier with the internet to hand.
well, classic cars are very rarely scrapped, but the price of fixing modern ones is whats prohibitive. also, more computers = more to go wrong.
after a certain age, the practicality and cost of fixing the car is almost irrelevant. We see this with old TDi Defenders. we have never scrapped one, they are all fixed, despite some having a few square feet of chassis missing due to rust, if it cant be fixed it will be replaced. if its beyond the owners budget to fix it will be sold and still fetch a high price. however, we often see cars 20 years younger going off to the scrap yard because they arent iconic and have too many expensive computer bits.
Also, fixing an accident damaged car is a lot more expensive now, so lots are written off for what i would call minor accidents. we have an accident damaged defender in at the moment which needs a front axle, diff, radius arms, steering rods, wings, bonnet, and the front of the chassis replacing. the same damage to a 2000 onwards car would be an instant write off. the same accident in a 2000 onwards car would also probably have been a fatality.
Due to it being a simple car, there were no airbags to go off and destroy the interior, and everything is simply unbolt the old and bolt on the new, and it will get another 100,000 miles if its looked after. it may not be sensible to spend thousands on a destroyed car, but its cheaper and more economical than buying a new one!
after a certain age, the practicality and cost of fixing the car is almost irrelevant. We see this with old TDi Defenders. we have never scrapped one, they are all fixed, despite some having a few square feet of chassis missing due to rust, if it cant be fixed it will be replaced. if its beyond the owners budget to fix it will be sold and still fetch a high price. however, we often see cars 20 years younger going off to the scrap yard because they arent iconic and have too many expensive computer bits.
Also, fixing an accident damaged car is a lot more expensive now, so lots are written off for what i would call minor accidents. we have an accident damaged defender in at the moment which needs a front axle, diff, radius arms, steering rods, wings, bonnet, and the front of the chassis replacing. the same damage to a 2000 onwards car would be an instant write off. the same accident in a 2000 onwards car would also probably have been a fatality.
Due to it being a simple car, there were no airbags to go off and destroy the interior, and everything is simply unbolt the old and bolt on the new, and it will get another 100,000 miles if its looked after. it may not be sensible to spend thousands on a destroyed car, but its cheaper and more economical than buying a new one!
Jordan Rich said:
Also, fixing an accident damaged car is a lot more expensive now, so lots are written off for what i would call minor accidents. we have an accident damaged defender in at the moment which needs a front axle, diff, radius arms, steering rods, wings, bonnet, and the front of the chassis replacing. the same damage to a 2000 onwards car would be an instant write off. the same accident in a 2000 onwards car would also probably have been a fatality.
Due to it being a simple car, there were no airbags to go off and destroy the interior, and everything is simply unbolt the old and bolt on the new, and it will get another 100,000 miles if its looked after. it may not be sensible to spend thousands on a destroyed car, but its cheaper and more economical than buying a new one!
That's not true. The defender is good in a head on crash because of the ladder frame chassis. The occupants are more likely to of been injured than a modern car, due to more g-force of the occupant. A morden car is desgined to keep the occupants safe so the energy of the crash goes through all the car not just the front.Due to it being a simple car, there were no airbags to go off and destroy the interior, and everything is simply unbolt the old and bolt on the new, and it will get another 100,000 miles if its looked after. it may not be sensible to spend thousands on a destroyed car, but its cheaper and more economical than buying a new one!
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